I’m so tired right now, you all don’t even get a picture tonight! Between heat and walking around and workshops I am exhausted and I’d really like to just get into bed and read.
It randomly ended up that both of my workshops today had male teachers. First I had “Man Up and Belly Dance” with Paige Lawrence, and then “Steven’s secrets to super slow” with Steven Eggers.
In Paige’s workshop we learned lots of great stylizations for bringing masculine energy to belly dance, regardless of your gender orientation. I liked that a lot of the moves were aggressive and that we drilled to lots of metal music, but we also played with some masculine folkloric elements too.
Steven’s workshop was great but rough. 2.5 hours of slow, what was I thinking? We spent about an hour of it working on mayas to demonstrate the concepts he uses to break down and master slow moves. That, more than anything, is why I am tired. I haven’t really drilled mayas in a long time, so having to do them super slow and focusing on one side at a time was brutal. I really didn’t want that reminder of how much work my left side needs. But achey muscles aside, I really enjoyed his approach to thinking about moves and I have some good ideas to apply to my practice in the future.
I also had more good time with friends, as people I know are getting into town. I was able to catch up with Kamrah, who I hadn’t seen since she moved to Chicago.
Tomorrow I have my last two workshops, and my bestie Jen arrives and the performances start. So much excitement!